Credit: Google maps

City will convey waterfront property to Kristal Auto Mall and an existing Toys ‘R’ Us retail store on Flatbush Avenue. On May 15, 2012, the City Council approved the Department of Small Business Services’ plan to facilitate the relocation of Kristal Auto Mall to a site on Flatbush Avenue abutting Mill Basin in Brooklyn. The City-owned project site is occupied by a 45,000-square-foot Toys ‘R’ Us store and a 400-space accessory parking lot used by surrounding businesses. To the south of the site is another City-owned parcel consisting of 400,000 sq.ft. of undeveloped land abutting Four Sparrow Marsh. The proposal called for, among other things, disposing of nearly 240,000 sq.ft. of City-owned property, demapping an unimproved strip of Flatbush Avenue, and rezoning the project site from C3 to C8-1.

Under the plan, Kristal Auto Mall will purchase a 110,000-square-foot portion of the parking lot in order to move from its current location at 5200 Kings Highway. Kristal plans to redevelop the property with a 114,000-square-foot facility housing a showroom, offices, and a service facility. A second 4,000-square-foot building will be used for used-car sales.

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Community opponents raised issues of parking and building height. Sephardic Center of Mill Basin proposed to construct a new 1 0,800 square-foot, two-story synagogue to replace its 20-year old, 6,800-squarefoot synagogue on the corner of Strickland and Mill Avenues in Mill Basin, Brooklyn. As proposed, the new synagogue would exceed the permitted floor area by 5,384 sq.ft., exceed the district’s permitted height by seven feet and fail to provide sufficient parking.

The Center claimed that the height limitation created a hardship since the synagogue needed a double- height worship area that would allow the men o n the lower level and the women on the upper level to view the rabbi from segregated praying areas, The Center also claimed that it needed additional space for segregated immersion pools, separate dairy and meat kitchens, private offices and a large events space. (more…)

Variance will permit 43-unit luxury apartment complex. Ira Weinstein, the owner of 2184 Mill Avenue, a 99,340-square-foot lot located on the northwest side of Strickland Avenue in an R3-1 district of Mill Basin, Brooklyn, sought a variance to convert a four-story, 100-year old munitions factory, currently used as a warehouse and retail showroom, into a five-story, 67,000-square-foot multiple dwelling with 45 luxury residential units, doctors’ offices, and a ground-floor restaurant.

Weinstein argued that commercial and manufacturing uses were infeasible due to the varying floor levels and poor circulation in the building and that demolishing the building to create as-of-right single and two-family homes would be too expensive due to chemical contamination from the former munitions factory. Community Board 18, State Senator Carl Kruger, Assemblyman Frank Seddio, Council Member Lewis Fidler, and the Mill Island Civic Association opposed the variance, claiming the proposed multi-unit dwelling was out of character with the surrounding one and two-family homes and Weinstein understated the cost to convert the building and the estimated profit from the as-of-right scenarios. Weinstein responded that the costs for removal of asbestos, lead or other contaminants in order to convert the building to conforming uses were accurate and pointed out that multiple dwellings were permitted on Strickland Avenue, directly across from the site. (more…)

New crosswalks and wider meridians help make the Grand Concourse safer for pedestrians. Image Credit: DDC

Phase 4 of the project will begin in April 2021. On August 12, 2020, the Department of Transportation, Department of Design and Construction, and Department of Environmental Protection, along with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and Council Member Vanessa Gibson, announced the completion of Phase 3 of the reconstruction of Grand Concourse in the Bronx. (more…)

Image Credit: NYC DDC

The upgrades include new traffic signals, traffic islands, new water mains, fire hydrants and curb extensions along the route. On February 14, 2020, the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Department of Design and Construction (DDC) announced the completion of the redevelopment of one of the busiest bus routes along Utica Avenue in Brooklyn, connecting major residential and commercial hubs. The $22.7 million dollar project will improve the B46 Select Bus Service (SBS), which services about 44,000 daily riders between Bedford-Stuyvesant to the Kings Plaza Mall. (more…)